Sunday, May 18, 2014

Rick Porcello Continues to Roll

Rick Porcello has a 2.91 ERA for the Tigers in 2014

(Photo credit: Detroit News)

A tigers fan could not be blamed if he or she was a little concerned about Rick Porcello facing the Red Sox last night. It was a heavily left-handed line-up in a hitters park where the Tigers have had little success in recent years. Additionally, the Tigers right hander was coming off a game where he left a little early due to some tightness in his side. So, many fans figured Mr. Porcello was due for one of his games where he gets whacked around.

Instead, Porcello defied the skeptics again last night holding the Red Sox to one run on six hits in eight innings with the only tally coming on a solo home run by shortstop Xander Bogaerts in the fifth inning. Continuing a season-long theme, Porcello handled left-handed batters just fine allowing just one hit in 15 at bats. For the season, he has held left-handed hitters to a .633 OPS versus .628 against right-handed hitters. The career LHB/RHB breakdown is .809/.680, so it's been a substantial improvement thus far.

Porcello had a lot of pitches working for him last night. According to Brooks Baseball, the pitch breakdown last night was:

Fastball 40

Sinker 24

Change-up 15

Slider 8

Curve 22

His curve was particularly effective - a -1.96 linear weights value (negative numbers are good) and three of his four strikeouts. His change (-1.73 linear weights) and sinker (-0.84) were also sharp.

The still just 25-year-old New Jersey native has compiled some impressive numbers for the season to help his team win seven of his eight starts. In 52 2/3 innings, Porcello has a 2.91 ERA and 3.21 FIP and is eighth in the American League in strikeout/walk ratio (4.71), fourth in walks per game (1.20) and second in WHIP (1.01).

It goes further back than just this year though as the Tigers have won 18 of his last 22 starts dating back to July 1 last year. In the last 365 days, Porcello has the following numbers: